Owning an Instant Pot is Worth it for the Hard Boiled Eggs Alone

The wanderlust and whimsical way she would talk about it got my attention but not enough for me to indulge in the kitchen gadget of her dreams, The Instant Pot.

"It's so easy. It's so fast. It's so good," she exuded to my largely unopen ears.

I don't know. It just didn't seem all that magical to me. Why would I need to chunk down some serious change to buy a kitchen gadget, another in a long list of latest crazes when I could cook just about anything anyway without it? I had a slow cooker, rice cooker, oven, canning pot and why in the world would I ever need a pressure cooker cooker? It didn't make sense to me.

So I listened to her proclaim its goodness for years, years I'm telling you without ever, ever considering buying one. What a waste of money. Waste of counter space. Waste of my time.

Then came the Christmas that changed my life. The one where she gifted me with...you guessed it...an Instant Pot.

"I knew you would never buy one for yourself," she exclaimed, "but you're going to love it."

I wasn't so sure about that, but it made me happy and opened my heart to the idea that this could be something good. I mean, if my sister, my best friend, was still raving about the Instant Pot after all these years, and bought me one there must be something to it.

Turns out she was right. Little Sis knew what she was talking about. The Instant Pot changed my life.

What I love about the Instant Pot is that it truly is a miracle cooker. Because it's a pressure cooker, it rolls back cooking times better than Walmart can rollback their prices! You can cook from frozen. You can slash minutes off of meats and roasts, meld flavors in complicated sauces and soups, and cook beans like a beast - no more simmering on the stove top for hours. But my favorite thing, my favorite thing to make in it is hard boiled eggs.

Hard boiled eggs in an Instant Pot? YUP. I load a few eggs into an egg tray, set it to Pressure Cook on High for 4 minutes, natural release for 10, then pressure release and BAM! Perfectly cooked, perfectly hard boiled eggs. Depending on how you like your eggs you can soft boil them too, you just have to adjust the pressure release time and experiment until you find your level of doneness (and there's tons of recipes out there to take the guess work out of it too).

This comes in handy for me because as a regularly exercising active person who eats eggs for protein, I'll throw 6 or so in there at the start of the week so I can have a quick snack on hand at work. Other times after a hard work out I will make an egg salad to replenish myself. I throw the eggs in The Instant Pot, take a shower, and by the time I'm done washing, they're ready to convert into one of my favorite quick and easy, healthy meals.

Owning an Instant Pot is worth it alone for the convenience of making eggs for me.

Now I'll tell you what I don't like about it. I personally don't like the way it cooks rice so I've kept my rice cooker which is just as big as my Instant Pot. I also don't think it's the best slow cooker due to the size and shape of the cylinder. I do regret gifting my Crock Pot but at this point I don't want to take up anymore space with buying another gadget. I also think it's silly to have to sauté and pre-cook food for some of the recipes. Sometimes I think by the time I do that I could have just cooked a meal in regular time (tacos for instant).

Despite some drawbacks, at the end of the day it saves time, makes life easier, and is fun to use. This enriches my Kitchen experience and helps me continue to create, cook, and share food that is as good for me as it tastes! It could help you do the same too!

If you have an Instant Pot, drop in the comments below what you do with it. Also, share some links to your favorite recipes too.

Thanks Heather for the gift all those years ago! I'm glad you ignored my deaf ears, believed in the power of The Instant Pot, and shared it's whimsy with me.